INFORMS Open Forum

Every OR practitioner has a story to tell.

Behind every model is a real problem, real people, imperfect data, and decisions that rarely unfold as planned. This stream invites papers that bring those stories to the foreground-sharing how Operations Research is actually practiced in real-world settings.

At the IFORS conference (https://www.ifors2026.at/home/), we welcome contributions that showcase applied OR projects and the practical challenges involved in carrying them out. Of particular interest are experiences that illustrate how practitioners:

• Identified and framed opportunities for OR
• Engaged stakeholders and decision-makers
• Formulated, tested, and refined models
• Dealt with data limitations, organizational constraints, or shifting objectives
• Navigated the often-difficult path from analysis to implementation

Submissions (https://www.euro-online.org/conf/ifors2026/) may reflect on topics such as:

• How the project began and how the problem was ultimately framed
• Assumptions that did not hold-and how the formulation evolved as a result
• Technical, organizational, or political challenges encountered along the way
• Strategies for "selling" OR: securing buy-in, managing expectations, and communicating value
• Lessons learned from successful implementations-or from attempts that fell short

This stream (please use session Code 70) aims to promote honest, experience-based insights into the practice of OR. We encourage both academics and practitioners to submit papers that reveal what happens beyond the equations-where OR meets reality.

 With the breadth of work you have undertaken, we are confident you have valuable experiences to share. We invite you to contribute and help enrich the collective understanding of how OR truly happens on the ground.

Elise del Rosario

elise@jgdelrosario.com